Waze currently has international alliances and partnerships with major Uber rival Lyft and Brazilian ridehailing app developer 99Taxis.BENGALURU: Israel-based mapping and navigation company Waze, which was acquired by Alphabet’s Google in 2013, is planning a stronger foray into fast-growing internet market in India and is exploring tie-ups and partnerships with local startup poster boys such as Ola and Flipkart, according to a top Waze executive.

In an interview at the Surge Conference in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Waze’s Amir Mirzaee also said that Waze is currently also exploring options that include launching its newly-launched cab ride-sharing program Waze Rider in international markets, if the pilot of the new programme is successful in home market Israel.

"We’re just reaching out to the market — so, Ola is one of the partners that I’m trying to meet here, we’re also meeting Flipkart and we’ll see how we can work together. Obviously we can provide a lot of value for free in a very nice way," said Mirzaee, who heads commerce and ads business development across Europe, Middle East and Africa for Waze.

Waze currently has international alliances and partnerships with major Uber rival Lyft and Brazilian ridehailing app developer 99Taxis.

He added that Waze currently has no plans of setting up a separate team in India, and wanted to remain a lean organisation. Waze Rider has currently only been piloted in Israel and the company will launch in newer markets, depending on the success of the pilot.

In 2013, Google bought Waze in a deal widely believed to be close to $1 billion, as part of the social engine giant’s broader strategy to beef up its mapping and mobile businesses.

Waze currently has no team in place in India, but a community of map editors in India who help improve the accuracy of Waze’s mapping and navigation products.

"We try to stay small — that is specifically (CEO) Noam’s (Bardin) approach. We try to stay small and nimble and then move fast. The reason why Google has a big outfit here is because manual work needs to be done. But we have over 300,000 map editors worldwide that do this job — we don’t need to artificially put a centre somewhere," said Mirzaee.